


A Jump to the Left

by Hal_is_absolutely_not_ladylike



Category: Eureka (TV), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Interdimensional Travel, M/M, Time Travel, a nicer universe for the hargreeves kids, but you know only referenced, tags may change as the story continues, the end of the world almost, the rest of the Eureka ensemble as well, there is no editing just me screaming into the void
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:53:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 9,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hal_is_absolutely_not_ladylike/pseuds/Hal_is_absolutely_not_ladylike
Summary: There is a reason time travel is illegal.
Relationships: Jack Carter/Nathan Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 38





	1. The Time Maintenance Laboratory

Here’s the thing about interdimensional travel: it is shockingly easy to do once you’ve figured out time travel. In fact, it’s so easy to do that it can happen on accident, if say you were under pressure to save your family from the end of the world which one of your siblings just caused by accidentally destroying the moon and you were forced back into your 13 year old body because you miscalculated when trying to get back to your family in the first place, you know that kind of pressure right?

In light of all this pressure it’s easy to see why Five in trying to calculated just the right equation to bring himself and his 6 siblings back in time didn’t notice the portal he had opened was in fact on the wrong side of the wall between his home dimension and the one just to its left.

Here’s the other thing about interdimensional travel: it’s a shit load of work to do when you are your own power source and you are bringing 6 people (one of whom needs to be resurrected) with you. So, you must forgive Five for the fact that as soon as the Hargreeves were through the portal he had inadvertently ripped between dimensions he passed out cold.

* * *

It is a truth universally acknowledged in Eureka that playing with time fucks everything up, which is why since the incident the time maintenance laboratory had been left alone. Of course, when certain people inadvertently traveled in time and came back to find their world different they may have, from time to time, stopped by to talk to a ghost of someone who they maybe kind of thought of as a friend in the first world and was apparently very much a friend in this new one. That is to say that talking to a ghost was all Jack Carter was expecting to do as he made his way to the lab that day, the scene he found was… different.

First of all, there where children (about seven of them if Jack was counting correctly, but he may not have been considering the second surprise) there was Nathan Stark alive and well and standing there arguing with the children about ethics and consent for human experimentation of all things.

“You run a lab why should we trust you!?” One of the boys was saying as Jack walked in.

“Look I’m telling you we do not conduct experiments on children, the only human testing we do is on adults who have given informed consent,”

“Oh I’m sure that will still be true when you see-” The Asian boy chimed in.

“Ben shut up! Who are you?” The black girl said startling Jack who had frozen in the doorway when his eyes had landed on the alive again Nathan Stark.

“I’m the Sheriff, Jack Carter” Jack blinked trying to start his brain up, he opened his mouth to speak again but what he was going to ask next about who they were and how they were in here was cut off by Nathan because of course it was.

“Jack back me up on this, tell them we don’t experiment on children and about the contractual clause consenting to experimentation for all employees”

“Later when I’m less happy that you’re alive again remind me to yell at you and Fargo about that because it is right in the middle of a contract that is far too long for any normal person to read,” Nathan looked ready to interrupt probably with some quip about him being the only average person in Eureka Jack shut him up with a raised eyebrow.

“But he is right they do not experiment on children; the scientists here may sometimes act like children and there is the occasional Tesla student who’s experiment gets preformed here but those are different matters. Now can you tell me who you are, how you got here, and if at all possible, how he’s alive again?” Jack asked nodding at Stark.

This caused a moment of silence while the kids looked at one another, well the five that were awake at least now that Jack could take his eyes off Stark for a second, he noticed that two of them seemed to be unconscious which was concerning. Then all the children started talking at once.

“We got separated from our tour-”

“We’re here to meet our dad and got lost-?”

“Why should we trust you?”

“Totally lost help us find our teacher”

“Vanya blew up the moon because we fucked up and didn’t love her, so Five ripped a portal in” he paused and wiggled his hands around in what looked like an I don’t know gesture “space and we ended up here on accident” the string bean with puppy eyes was the last to finish speaking, he smiled at Jack while the others glared daggers at him.

“Oh my god Klaus you’re an idiot” the one apparently called Ben said and started laughing.

“Right, right, right Five probably brought him back from the dead when he undead-ed Ben.” Klaus said with another smile.

Jack looked at the kids, then at Stark, then back at the kids and finally said “Right I’m getting Henry.”


	2. Conference room 34857

The less said about Henry’s arrival with members of the medical team the better in Jack’s opinion. Suffice it to say there was a lot of yelling and at least one knife thrown, where that child got a knife Jack does not want to know, but eventually with lot of coaxing and bargaining they were able to get everyone out of the time maintenance lab and into a conference room that the medical team had put cots in as well as some food and water.

It was a tense situation that Jack was happy to be pulled out of by Stark – Nathan – grabbing his hand. As Nathan pulled him out of the room Jack had to settle himself, to remember that it was normal for this Nathan to hold his Jack’s hand that he shouldn’t pull it away, that the Jack in this universe would be happy to see his boyfriend / almost fiancé (what do you call the man who proposed to a version of you multiple times in a time loop but didn’t get around to it that last time because he was too busy helping you save the world???) no stop thinking he’s talking oh god.

“ – somethings wrong Jack and I need you to be honest with me, I know I have been gone for a while and I don’t expect you to have not moved on I know I’m amazing and it would be hard to find someone – ”

“Nathan stop congratulating yourself on being you and spit it out”

“Are you dating Alison? Did you move on from my death with my ex-wife?”

Jack froze, this was not what he was expecting how was he supposed to break it to this version of Nathan that he was not his Jack. So Jack told him the truth, a little bit.

“We kissed again recently” okay in 1947 but still recently in his own life timeline Christ this was awkward he really had to tell Nathan he probably wouldn’t turn them into the government but later in a less public place. Oh no Nathan’s face Christ he looks like a kicked puppy, that man should not be allowed to be that cute. “There wasn’t a spark.” It was like someone flipped a switch in Nathans mind from kicked puppy to shark about to devour a whole school of fish. “I have to – ” the rest of Jack’s sentence was cut off by a blinding blue flash of light from the conference room.

“Stay behind me” Nathan was turning to move in to the room.

“I’m the Sheriff, you stay behind me you idiot.” Jack pushed in front of him and into the room.

* * *

Nothing about this day was going the way Jack thought it would. He was just going to stop by and bitch at Stark’s ghost for a few minutes before having a meeting with Joe and Fargo about security protocols, he was supposed to have lunch with Henry and do paperwork with deputy Andy. But no nothing in Eureka ever went as it was supposed to. So, of course, the conference room he walked into no longer held seven children, two of whom were unconscious, but six adults and one child (the unconscious boy, the unconscious girl was now an adult).

“Anybody wanna’ tell me what happened this time?” Jack was so ready to be done with this day.

“We’re leaving now” the large blond man said. Nathan snorted in response to that.

“You wouldn’t make it off the floor let alone out of the building.” The derision in Nathan’s tone was palpable.

“Oh we would make it out, we would have to kill people on the way but we would make it out. Don’t worry we’re staying.” Ben, Jack was pretty sure it was Ben, said. This got an immediate reaction from the other men in the small group.

“What”

“No.”

“Benny boy!”

The woman raised her eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Look last time you all decided to listen to Luther and that ended the world, so this time you’re going to listen to me. These people seem smart and nice and want to help us, and we need help right now.”

“Ben I know that-” the blond man tried to interject.

“No Luther! You don’t know shit! I was dead, I died thanks to your great leadership and so did the rest of our world. You made the worst decision at every turn, all any of you had to do was pull your heads out of your asses and be a good fucking sibling once in a while and could you no! The only one who even tried was Allison, she didn’t even do that good of a job but at least she tried!”

“Ben that’s not fair” Luther interjected.

“No it’s not but we got bought by and abusive asshole who wanted action figures and tried to make us into them. It’s not fair that we have numbers instead of names. It’s not fair that Klaus died trying to save your ass in a fight and you didn’t notice. It’s really not fair to Vanya that we treated her like less than shit all her life because we thought she wasn’t special like us and that when you all found out that she was the first thing you did was try to kill her.” Ben looked mad, Jack was not excited about having to break up a fight of apparently crazy people but he was getting ready for it, he hoped Nathan would call Jo before too much blood was shed.

Everyone in the room took a tense breath, then from one of the beds,

“Ben’s right, we have to be nicer to Vanya and we need help and I need a drink.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Yea there was more of this bullshit, with actual Jack / Nathan content. They may suffer a bit to get there but they are endgame.


	3. A Conversation

Jack is many things but smart enough to follow the conversation Nathan, Zane, and Five (yes apparently that is his name) are having is not one of them. He is vaguely aware that they are discussing quantum … something mechanics maybe physics quite possibly, there was some initial talk in layman’s terms but then Five realized that Nathan and Zane actually knew what he was talking about and then they were off into technical terms and equations and Jack was left just to think. 

Yesterday had been a long day, there had been many more arguments both with and within the group of visitors, then there had been the herculean task of filling out 924B (in triplicate) to legally undead Nathan, his wrist was still killing him (why why couldn’t the federal government go paperless). 

Finally, he and Nathan had made it back to the bunker (because of course Nathan didn’t have a house and the damn town had never gotten around to getting another hotel and of course Nathan would stay with Jack they had been together when he died and Jack wasn’t with any one else.) Well at least Jack had managed to get a minute to call S.A.R.A.H. and update her so she had food and beers waiting for them when they arrived and wasn’t mad at him for being left out. Sleeping next to Nathan had been so nice, the warmth of him his solid presence when Jack woke up in the middle of the night was so calming. Giving up consistently sleeping next to someone was the thing he most regretted about getting divorced (which really should have been a sign sooner that things weren’t working out) so to have someone he knew and trusted in his bed again was very nice. And if he woke up with Nathan hot and hard against his backside in the morning, well he’d brushed him off before they’d done anything so he shouldn’t feel guilty (but he did he really did). 

Now he was here listing to three people who were so very much smarter than him talk about things he could never hope to comprehend with out even Henry to translate for him, it felt like punishment but Jack supposed he had deserved it for not taking the chance to tell Nathan the truth. 

There were other things to worry about though, the girl / woman / Vanya who may have accidentally destroyed her last world by blowing up the moon with sound (why was there always a new way to destroy the world) still wasn’t awake. The medical staff were starting to make noises about running tests and setting up IV’s and monitors so that was a discussion Jack was going to have to have with her siblings (they had also taken time to clear that up yes they were all legally siblings) thought maybe just Ben and Allison (wasn’t that fun now there were two Allisons and neither liked Jack right now) as they seemed the ones most concerned with her health and safety.

Five also was still constrained to a bed, which chaffed him (though everything seemed to) because every time he tried to stand his legs gave way beneath him and he would faint from exhaustion. He was also asking for alcohol or coffee at every opportunity, though Jack was against it Zane had brought Five a Vinspresso to coax him into the current discussion. 

It had also come to light that the new Allison had recently suffered an injury to her vocal cords and could not speak, she was also not willing to be seen by the medical staff, seriously what was with these people?

There was a lot to consider so why couldn’t Jack focus on anything other than looking at Nathan? He didn’t even need to be here for this conversation, he should be talking to the other siblings trying to find out what the hell is going on with them but Nathan had gestured for him to sit down when they arrived and Jack found he couldn’t tear himself away. (Did he always feel this way about Nathan? Nathan had always been the pinnacle of Jack’s type in men, when he started taking his shirt off that first time Jack though he was going to faint, but nothing ever happened... right? Was the Nathan in his timeline queer as well could they have been a thing? Were they really flirting the whole time and Jack had just not noticed? Why had they pulled their heads out of their asses and gotten to be happy together here but in the first time line they could hardly be friends?) Jack tried to keep his face neutral and just look at Nathan like a normal human and not like he was trying to remember forever how amazing waking up plastered together had felt that morning because he was sure when he told Nathan the truth that night (he was absolutely going to) it would never happen again.

Finally, the egg heads were forced to take a break mostly because Five was insistent that he needed more of what was apparently “the first good cup coffee I have had in decades” which was a confusing statement coming from the mouth of someone who looked 13, but at least it gave Jack a chance to gracefully leave the conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jacks freaking out a bit, not about the man thing, about the did I have feelings for Nathan and never notice thing. Can you tell I'm bad at transitions yet?


	4. Please be reasonable and not too crazy, okay one out of two aint bad.

Freed from the conversation about time travel and his mental loop of thoughts about Nathan’s very nice body, Jack decided it was time to consult the siblings about medical care for Vanya. Ben was at her bedside talking to her, saying something about marshmallow sandwiches if Jack heard right (why is there nothing normal about these people) as Jack approached.

“I don’t mean to interrupt but I was hoping I could talk to you about –”

“No it’s a one sided conversation any ways and I had enough of those being dead, I just thought she might be able to hear me. I wanted to let her know I was here for her, for real this time not you know as a ghost.”

“Sure, sure” (There were so many things wrong with these people Jack didn’t want to press for fear of them all shattering)

“You know when I was dead I tried to talk to them all the time, move things, send messages from the great beyond that sort of shit. But the only one who ever talked to me was the one who could see ghosts. I was dead for years, years and none of these fuckers ever said shit to me. When I think about that I understand why she wanted to kill them all, they’re the fucking worst sometimes.”

“Klaus was your only conversation partner for years, that must have been interesting.”

“How did you ?”

“He’s the only one who doesn’t flinch when you mention being dead, also he looks like he spent a long time trying to make himself not see you or anything.”

“Did he try to swipe something?”

“No, believe it or not before I was the town idiot I was a Marshall and I was actually pretty good at my job.” Ben raised his eyebrow at this. “I think seeing ghosts is would make any one want to self medicate. He’s got that look he’s too thin, heroin chic was what they called it in the ‘90s, the rest of you are thin in a healthy way he looks like he picked drugs and booze over nine meals out of ten.”

“And for the tenth he ate waffles” Ben said huffing a laugh and shaking his head.

“The only thing I can’t figure out is the 173rd Airborne tattoo that looks both new and exactly like ones from the Vietnam war”

“Klaus will have to tell you that story, let’s just say time travel is never fun.”

“Oh believe me I know.” That got another raised eyebrow. “But that’s not what I came over here to talk about, your sister needs medical attention” Jack could see Ben’s guard going back up “I know you guys don’t want us to do any tests, and no one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to, but will you at least meet with the head of our medical department talk though the options for IV fluids that sort of thing?”

“Do you trust the head of medical?”

“Allison Blake is a great doctor; she has saved my life and my daughters life too many times honestly. She might not like me right now for reasons that are out of our control; but if the chips were down right now she would do everything in her power to save me. They’re good people here, they may act irresponsibly sometimes but they are all genuinely trying to help.”

“That’s a pretty glowing recommendation for someone who apparently doesn’t like you”

“Yeah well its complicated, but I do trust her.”

“I will talk to the others, if Vanya doesn’t wake up soon we are going to have to do something.” Jack took the win and started to walk away before pausing.

“One more thing before I let you get back to your conversation…”

“Yep?”

“Where does Diego keep getting those knives?”

Ben laughed at this for a while, finally he said “Don’t worry he wont stab anyone he doesn’t mean too.”

“Oh that makes me feel so much better.” Jo had been dissuaded on full strip searches on account of them being children the first day but the longer this went on the more Jack was sure she was making plans for a full-scale assault on the conference room should the siblings turn hostile. Just another day at Global Dynamics. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben is the reasonable one but he's still mad as hell. Also Alison has her reasons for not being fond of Jack right now and it's a good one, time travel has consequences. But just because she and Jack aren't on good terms and their kiss was a miss doesn't mean they aren't still friends.


	5. Things get pear shaped

Everything went to shit after lunch.

Jack couldn’t figure out a way to get Nathan out of the room when Allison was going to come in and talk to the siblings about options for Vanya’s care (they apparently were very civil ex’s in this universe) so he was still there chatting with Five Zane and Henry about something to do with time travel. (Jack was sure if Zane and Nathan were left unsupervised too long someone might get the bright idea to pull out the bridge device and no one wanted that so he had called in Henry as back up. Thank god for Henry.) 

All in all, Alison’s reaction to seeing Nathan wasn’t as bad as it could have been; she stiffened looked pained and then set her jaw to talk to the group about plans moving forward. (Jack thought briefly that had Lowjack seen her looking at him like that he would have run straight in to Taggart’s arms, so he couldn’t fault the siblings for their hesitance.) 

Things seemed to settle for a while, they made decisions about Vanya’s care (no tests, but yes to other needed measures), until of course Allison tried to talk to the new Allison about restring her voice. Luther took the stance that she needed her vocal cords fixed, based on the number of times the woman underlined the word no on her note pad she seemed very against it. Diego then took her side against Luther, which prompted Luther to start yelling that Diego didn’t care about what was best for Allison but just liked to disagree because he was number two. (Why these people had some sort of horrifying numerical ranking had not yet been explained but Jack knew he was not going to like it when it was.) Then Klaus started yelling about bodily autonomy, which prompted every one to yell at him to shut up (the pattern of these people being extremely unkind to one another was by this point no longer a surprise to Jack, which was gross on an emotional level). Five tried to make what seemed like it was going to be an impassioned argument about why Allison needed her voice back, but was shouted over by Luther in a way that made both of their words unintelligible. Henry tried to weigh in and help calmer heads prevail but Jack was sure this was about to come to blows and so pulled him back. Just as Jack was shaking his head no at Henry to stop him, Allison slammed her pad down on the table and stopped everyone in their tracks. Her notepad said

“The last time I talked I hurt Vanya! The only person I want to talk to is my daughter Claire! She doesn’t exist in this world! I DO NOT WANT TO TALK!”

As soon as Jack finished reading it his eyes snapped to one then the other Allison, both women were crying though the new Allison couldn’t seem to understand why Dr. Blake was crying. Henry stepped forward and bent down to Allison’s shoulder

“Take her into another room tell her whatever you want, you deserve someone you can talk to if we all get sanctioned for it, it will have been worth it. Please, you’ll understand each other you can help each other.”

Allison stood and said

“We are going to talk privately; we will be back.” And coaxed the other woman to leave the room with her. This of course upset the other siblings, Luther was the loudest in his displeasure.

“Where is she taking her? What is going on? What aren’t you telling us?”

The rest of the siblings also seemed keen to know the answer to these questions. Jack scrambled to try and find the right words and not say too much and violate Allison’s privacy when Henry spoke again.

“They are going to have a private conversation about motherhood, I suggest you let them be, no harm will come to your sister.” (God bless Henry and his ability to always have the right most calming words.)

While everyone was placated by Henry’s words no one was happy; the siblings seemed unsettled to be missing their sister and Jack could practically feel Nathan’s eyes boring in to the back of his head trying to get him to turn around and explain what the hell that was. Finally the pained silence was broken by Jo and Fargo’s arrival; for all that Fargo had pulled himself together to be the new head of G.D. he was still Fargo and had a skill like no other for putting his foot in it. (Jack was just happy it wasn’t him this time).

“Hello everybody, ready to get out of the conference room and into the… wait a minute there’s someone missing and shouldn’t Dr. Blake be here?”

Jack swore he saw a knife appear in Diego’s hand; Jo apparently also saw it as she took a menacing step forward.

“They are having a private conversation, just like the one Jack and I are going to have.” Nathan said as he pulled Jack out of the room. Nathan marched them down the hall and into the elevator before he spoke again “I know something is going on and I would like you to tell me what it is”

“Not in public but yes, I will tell you what’s going on lets just get back home” Jack felt like swallowing his tongue why did he have to call it home, oh Nathan was going to hate him when he found out Jack already hated himself enough for both of them this was going to hurt.

It was a very tense ride back to the bunker, neither of them said a word.


	6. Another Conversation

“What the hell is going on with you and Ally!?” Nathan was wasting no time getting to the point. Jack knew he had to tell the truth just rip off the whole band-aid at once.

“We traveled in time and changed the world. Me and Allison and Henry and Joe and Fargo got sent back to 1947 by the bridge device and when we got back the world had changed. The biggest thing was in the old time line you and Allison had gotten back together and were going to get remarried on the day of the time loop, but that went the same and you still died and not long after that Allison found out she was pregnant with your daughter, she was a beautiful little girl called Jenna she was so sweet and she had your eyes but then when we came back from 1947 you and Allison hadn’t gotten back together so Jenna never existed.” Jack rushed to get it out. Nathan was looking at Jack like he had hit his head. “That’s why Allison looked at you like that, she’s mad at this version of us because our being together means her daughter never existed, that’s why she was crying when the new Allison said her daughter didn’t exist here because she feels the same way.”

“You traveled in time using the Einstein Grant Bridge Device? That’s not possible.”

“How is that what you are stuck on? Yeah Kevin got it to work, well the other universe Kevin, but yes we traveled via the bridge device. It was on Founder’s Day.”

“Two weeks ago?”

“Yes, again, how is this what you are stuck on. I’m trying to explain that I have no memories of being in a relationship with you, I’m not the Jack you knew, I’m not your Jack.”

“Of course you are.”

“No I’m not, Nathan you aren’t hearing me –” 

“Yes I am Jack you traveled in time and maybe you don’t remember falling in love with me but I remember falling in love with you, and you are absolutely still my Jack. The Jack I tried to flirt with by getting shirtless when I fainted, the Jack who always does the right thing even when it hurts, the Jack who loves baseball and understands all the statistics that go along with it but refuses to believe he is good at math. So in your memories I chickened out and didn’t ask you to dance at the Lise Meitner dance after I was so jealous of seeing my ex-wife kiss you that I gave up on world domination to tear you two apart, so what. I love you I know you’re going to love me so we get to start over I’ve been dead for a year we were probably going to have to start over somewhat.”

“Your ego is so big –”

“Guess what else is so big”

“Nathan!”

“Come here, I know you haven’t been with a man in a while, we can take it slow”

“How did you – Jesus”

“I told you, you are my Jack I know you weather you know it or not.”

And then Jack was being kissed, very very well. To say there was a spark would be drastically under selling it, it was more like a forest fire. Eventually they did stop kissing, it took them a while, they were very good at it and both felt the need to make up for lost time right that minute. When they did finally stop Nathan had more questions.

“What on earth made Ally and I think we could make it work a second time, had we drastically changed? We were terrible together, we always picked something else first, what possessed up to think it would be different?”

“Nathan –”

“And of course time travel had horrible consequences, well for Allison at least, that was why research into the practicalities of it was made illegal it should have only ever remained theory.”

“You of all people are not the person I expected to get a lecture on the negative consequences of science from,”

“Time travel is the exception, there are too many variables at play –”

“Speaking of variables, we also brought Dr. Trevor Grant back with us when we returned from 1947.”

“You WHAT?”

“Not on purpose he switched jackets with me and stole my phone, which was how we were going to travel back it was a whole thing which is why I kissed Allison”

“To what? Say goodbye?”

“I don’t know it was a heat of the moment thing but it worked I’m here aren’t I? I’m not stuck in some military jail in 1947.”

“You got so lucky”

“Oh I’m aware” Nathan raised his eyebrows “Zoe is still at Harvard, my ex-wife and I are on better terms, and now you’re here and I don’t have to feel guilty about ogling you all I want.”

“what a lucky, lucky man” Nathan grinned at him like the Cheshire cat.

“Kiss me again and some of that luck might rub off on you.” Nathan’s grin got impossibly wider.

“Hopefully not the only thing that will –” Jack cut off the rest of that thought with a kiss.


	7. Fight Fight Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! Warning! Warning! I'm not joking! Klaus shares some of his experiences with seeing the dead in this chapter and it's fucked up.

Ideally Jack and Nathan would have spent the rest of the afternoon making out on the couch like teenagers and catching each other up on the differences of their worlds as well as just getting to know one another. It would have been a very nice afternoon. Instead Jo called.

By the time Jack got back to G.D. and to the quarantine rooms (Jack didn’t know why they had them and knew better than to ask at this point) turned provisional living space they had moved the siblings too after it became clear they would be staying for a while, Diego and Luther were both restrained in separate rooms and from the sound of it Diego was still trying to yell at Luther.

“Diego finally got to the fact that Luther let Klaus die” Ben was explaining to Jo as Jack walked in.

“I never knew he cared so much about little ol’ me” Klaus was lounging on the couch like nothing had happened.

“Who do you think paid for you to go to rehab repeatedly?” Ben squinted at Klaus as if trying to figure out how someone could be so stupid.

“Deputy Andy was required to separate them” Jo looked a little unnerved when she told Jack that. (This should have set off alarm bells in Jack’s mind but as he was still returning from cloud nine it did not, you must forgive him he had just been thoroughly kissed it takes a while to recover from.)

“Didn’t want to mess up your suit?” Jack teased.

“No, I tried first.” (There were the alarm bells. Finally.)

Before Jack had a chance to respond to that there was a large smash and the sound of Luther yelling quite clearly.

“It wasn’t my fault! Klaus didn’t have to follow me! I would have been fine on my own!”

Then the muffled response from Diego.

“All you care about is yourself! So what dad turned you in to an ape and sent you to the moon boo hoo! That doesn’t mean the rest of us weren’t going through shit while you were gone!”

“Like what!”

“Klaus overdosed more times than I can count! I got kicked out of the police academy for threatening dealers so they wouldn’t sell to him anymore! You think I liked living in a fucking boiler room of a god damned gym? No! But Klaus knew where it was so I couldn’t move!”

“You let a drug addict ruin your life that’s your own fault don’t yell at me about it!”

“He’s only an addict because Dad tortured him into being one!”

“Oh please he’s just weak!”

“SHUT UP.” Klaus was no longer lounging on the couch but standing on it, he looked feral. He stalked down the hall to where Luther had his head poking through the hole he had apparently punched in the wall to yell at Diego. When Klaus spoke again it was quiet. “Do you know what the screams of the dead sound like, Luther? They never stop, they get right in close” he stepped as close as possible to Luther “and they howl and yell and cry. But it’s not the screams that are the worst any more, not since dear old dad stopped locking me in the crypt oh no, it’s the kids. Yeah kids never thought about that did you? Let me tell you about the kids. They are always scared and covered in blood and I can’t help them I can never do anything. So yeah I get high as shit and try to check out so they can’t ask me for help I can’t give. But do you want to know something else? I haven’t had anything for days, all so I could try to see Dave, the love of my life whose body I held after he died. But now! Now because of you and your shitty plan we’re in a different fucking universe and I can’t even use this shit to see the love of life. So shut up about the fucking moon.” With that he turned and walked calmly back to the couch.

* * *

The next few days were tense. Deputy Andy was re-tasked to being at G.D. at all times in case another fight needed to be broken up. Zane and Nathan continued their discussions with Five regarding time travel and teleportation, thought they were under strict instructions from Fargo that it was just to be theoretical discussions as and technology development in those areas was strictly banned. The Allisons continued to have their own discussions and both seemed better for it. In a surprising move Jo even let Diego run the tactical course, he refused a gun but managed to get a perfect score using his knives (his siblings were not surprised by this but Jo was). Luther refused to speak to any one but his sister Allison, she was uninterested in listening to him so he spoke to no one. Things seemed stable trending towards good, but it was still Eureka Jack was prepared for the other shoe to drop. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continue to not know where this is going. Also a note Luther is in his adult body pre-ape man-ing, I didn't know how to smoothly work that in there other than the lack of Jack going wtf about Luther's adult body. (On another separate but related note I don't hate Luther I just think he needs some help pulling his head out of his ass because right now hes just wiggling his ears up in there.)


	8. Lunch and Tentacles and Bears oh my!

Let’s be honest everyone thought the other shoe would be dropped by Vanya, no one was expecting it to be done by Taggart. 

Jack had decided he wanted to try and talk to Klaus, he’d been with the LAPD before the Marshalls he had seen some things no one should see and he’d had friends who had responded in similar ways as Klaus. Jack just wanted to let the guy know that he wouldn’t get judgment just help if he wanted it. Of course Klaus didn’t want to go alone and had dragged Ben and Diego along with them, which Jack was fine with anything to keep them comfortable and easier to manage was fine with him. Which is how Jack and the three men ended up in Café Diem when Taggart returned. Taggart being Taggart of course returned with two full sized grizzly bears following him.

Jack did not have time to process anything more than that (he though he heard Klaus scream) before there were tentacles, big (big) tentacles (tentacles that seemed to be coming from where Ben was sitting), wrapped around one of the bears lifting it into the air and slamming it back down on to the ground with a horrible metallic crunch.

There was silence for a moment after that and then a liquid-y sound as the tentacles retracted into Ben (yep they were coming from Ben these siblings just kept getting weirder.)

Then there was another moment of silence broken by Taggart’s strangled voice saying “Pebbles?”

“Everybody all right?” Jack asked as he looked around the room, everyone was frozen and quite a few of them were looking at Ben in horror, Klaus was standing on his chair, and it looked like Diego had launched a few of his knives (seriously where did he keep getting them?) into the other bear.

“She’s just two days old… just a baby” came Taggart’s pained voice. Ben opened his mouth to start to speak but Jack quickly shook his head.

“Let’s take this over to my office, Ben Diego Klaus do you want to help move the robot bear? Taggart come on, I’m sure you can fix her, bring your other friend.” Taggart looked sadly at the downed bear before starting to move. Jack took a second look around and nodded apologetically at Vincent before herding the group across the street.

* * *

Once he had gotten everyone (including the operation bear bot which still had knives sticking out of it) into the Sheriff’s office, he took in a breath for the first in what felt like hours. Almost as soon as he exhaled all three of the younger men started talking at once, but he held up a hand to silence them.

“Taggart who do you have two robotic grizzly bears?”

“Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are part of my new experiment but their brains aren’t reacting like bears should so I was bringing them to G.D. to recalibrate,”

“And you brought them to Café Diem because…?”

“Snackies” Taggart said like that was obvious.

Jack turned to the brothers, and Ben in particular “Tentacles?”

“Yep.” (Super helpful.)

“Are they safe?”

“Well … the last time I got them out when I was in my body it kind of killed me so, no”

“Okay, I’m gonna go ahead and say don’t get them out again. There are probably going to be some questions, probably actually from Taggart, he is our head of” Jack paused and tried to think of the right words but his brain was still stuck on killer tentacles being in Ben and bear bots and so went with “animal stuff” he pointed at Taggart who was now opening Pebbles to get at the mechanics inside. “But also from what you all have told me about your father I get it if you don’t want to and I will try to explain that to everyone else.” Ben looked relieved. Diego was clearly less trusting and leaned over to remove the knives from Bamm-Bamm (so maybe he didn’t have an unlimited supply of them he was just good at cleaning up after himself.) Of course because it was Eureka and nothing can ever go well in Eureka this caused the bear to shoot sparks and light on fire.

In the seconds that followed the bear lighting on fire three things happened quickly: first Klaus was screaming again, second Nathan walked in and had just enough time to take in the chaotic scene before, third the fire suppression system was coating the whole room in foam. All Jack could do was laugh, that was it Eureka had broken him, he was done all he could do was laugh.

* * *

Later, once the foam had been cleaned up and the bear bots had been moved to Taggart’s car and Taggart and Diego had traded face scar stories (a tree limb and a bullet respectively [Taggart still had no tact or shame apparently]) and Nathan had extracted a promise that Jack would tell him what happened later at home (because excitingly that was still happening) and the whole lot of them had made it back to G.D. Jack finally felt his mind finish processing the whole tentacle thing. Perfectly in time for him to be blindsided again, this time in a good way, by Luther.

“The Horror was out. Are you all right Ben?” Luther’s demeanor had changed the second Diego had mentioned the tentacles (which were apparently called the horror [yeah that boded well]). Instead of his usual sulky tree behavior he was suddenly right next to Ben looking concerned and like he wanted to pat Ben down and make sure he wasn’t hurt anywhere and hiding it, he looked worried which was a new expression on him. Jack noticed Diego looking at him curiously like this wasn’t the normal level of concern Luther showed, and based on what Jack had seen that checked out.

“It’s fine, I think they were a bit freaked out by the whole metal bear thing so they went quietly”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah Luther, I’m sure. Don’t worry I won’t Horror out and kill anyone.”

“I’m more worried about it hurting you.”

Even all of the siblings seemed taken aback by that. Their visible shock was clear to Luther who looked hurt.

“You’re my brother and you died because I made you… because I wasn’t strong… because –”

“Because of Dad.” Ben stopped him “Look its nice that you care, but I’m fine and right now I just want lunch, Jack you promised us any food we could think of but honestly can I just get some waffles.”

“Yay waffles!” Jack was starting to wonder if Klaus’s secret second power was defusing situations by saying dumb things. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all this one took me a minute and the next one might as well. (I will admit to getting a little distracted by TNG but also I needed to figure out what Tag was gonna do he likes to zag when you think he's gonna zig) Also I think I broke Jack a little bit he might need a break.


	9. Kiss and make up

Jack was very excited to wake up the next day, it was his first proper day off since Nathan had returned and he had managed to convince the man to take the day off as well (he wasn’t officially back to work yet but he had been spending most of his days yelling at Trevor Grant for trying to strand Jack in 1947 [ha!] or talking with Five recently). Jack had even gone so far as to tell S.A.R.A.H. they weren’t to be disturbed for anything less than a code red (potentially world ending or major war starting) event. It was going to be a good day.

It was just Jack’s luck that instead of waking up with Nathan pressed warm and solid against his back he woke to the sounds of Nathan arguing on the phone.

“That doesn’t answer the question Fargo why did you approve Taggart’s Bear Experiment?” Oh no why did it sound like Nathan was capitalizing the words bear experiment that didn’t bode well.

“No Fargo its not a harmless idea, he has been on about it since the ‘90s didn’t you think there was a reason it hadn’t been approved yet?” Nathan noticed Jack looking at him from the bed and smiled.

“No Fargo I am not saying that he doesn’t care about the future effects of climate change and shrinking habitats of Ursus arctos horribilis! I am sure he does but that’s not why he wanted to run the experiment he just wanted bears and you gave them to him!” Back to yelling at Fargo, Jack flopped backward on the bed there went his carefully planned seduction and lazy morning. Nathan patted Jack’s foot in what seemed like apology, at least he could acknowledge this wasn’t ideal.

“We put him off in the past by telling him the technology wasn’t ready that we couldn’t accurately replicate the behaviors of wild animals… we could always say the dogs were one thing but wild animals were another.”

“The geese would have shown him that the technology was ready” Jack said mostly to himself. Nathan turned and raised an eyebrow clearly not listing to Fargo.

“The geese that got caught up in the big magnet array thingy that the high schooler’s mom copied.” Nathan didn’t seem to be getting where he was going with this “Remember the science fair, you gave my kid a car… Jo was ready for a riot… did that not happen here?” Suddenly Nathan seemed to get it. 

“Yes! Taggart’s study with the robotic geese! That would have been proof of concept for our ability to replicate behavioral patterns of wild animals! Thank you, Jack,” Nathan leaned down and gave Jack a little forehead kiss. Jack liked that, if every time he figured something out here he got a kiss he wondered what would happened when he saved the town. While Jack let his brain wander down that path Nathan continued to argue with Fargo over the phone, before eventually hanging up on him with a huff.

“What’s got you so riled up about the bear bots?” Jack knew he should be trying to change the subject and get them back on track for their relaxing day but, well, he was also a but worried about the bear bots.

“Taggart has been on about this experiment since he got to Eureka, and until now we had all been very careful not to let him have it, but then Fargo, stupid Fargo, needs him for some section five project that he wont tell me about, and I was the head of section five when I dematerialized so I should be in the loop, so he goes and gives Taggart his Ursus arctos horribilis robots! How can he be this stupid!”

“What’s so bad about the experiment?”

“It’s not the experiment it’s that Taggart now has grizzly bears as pets”

“Well when you put it like that it’s bad. But Taggart with just about anything has the potential to be bad, hell even Taggart’s nanobots almost destroyed the world!”

“Fargo had a helping hand in that debacle too.”

“Yes I remember, but what that doesn’t explain is why you are awake at… SARAH what time is it?”

“The time is currently 6:45 am” 

“At 6:45! On our day off, when we are supposed to be relaxing and sleeping in, yelling at Fargo over the phone?”

“Well someone has to yell at him, from what I have seen around global he’s far more of an egomaniacal blowhard than you ever accused me of being. Have you seen the posters he put up everywhere of his own face? And have you heard the ‘think global act dynamic’ announcements?”

“That was all done by the Fargo from before we time traveled not the Fargo we know now.”

“But he was still dumb enough to approve the Bear Experiment, if he was my assistant in your timeline then he would have heard me complain about how dumb someone would have to be to give Taggart bears!”

“Yeah well Tag let it slip that he went off into the wild after Jo turned down his proposal so maybe Fargo needed to bring out the big guns to get him back for the section five thing.”

“Jo turned him down?”

“That’s what you are surprised about not that Jo and Tag were a thing?”

“No they were together for years here,” Nathan looked confused for a moment “but in your timeline she was with Zane oh that makes sense.” Nathan sat back down on the bed, finally.

“Great now that I won’t have to arrest you for murdering Fargo later can we go back to sleep?”

“Or we could do something else and nap later we do have the whole day” Nathan was smiling at him and inching closer.

“Oh?”

“We could continue our own little experiment” Jack hummed at this, “continue our exploration into areas that have remained unvisited for far too long.”

“We could” Nathan looked like the cat who got the canary “or we could go back to sleep now and do that later.” Jack put up a token protest but Nathan wasn’t giving up that easily.

“Allow me to convince you otherwise” Nathan could be very good and convincing someone when he wanted to and it didn’t hurt that Jack very much wanted to be convinced. 

* * *

Later, much later, after they had finally dragged themselves out of bed and then out of the shower (having an endless supply of hot water definitely had its perks) they finally made their way into town to pick up lunch. (Jack had been adamant they were only going to Café Diem to pick up lunch and then right back to the bunker, he had been mostly against leaving in the first place but Nathan had said Vincent was making his favorite meal for the day's special and Jack had found he was powerless against Nathan’s pleading face [something he was sure Nathan would remember for when he wanted to do some harebrained experiment that would probably blow up half the town and Jack would have to try and stop].)

The trip did not go as planned; Jack was starting to suspect the universe hated him a little bit.

First, they ran into Jo and Diego having lunch, which while slightly odd at first glance was not unexplainable it made sense that Jo might want to extract members to the group one at a time to casually interrogate them. What was weird was that three minutes later, just as Zane walked in, the pair started kissing.

“Stop staring” Nathan whispered.

“I’m not staring” Jack may have been staring.

“You had to see it coming, he is exactly her type.”

“What! No! Jo is a professional.”

“Yeah and he looks like someone took Zane and Taggart and picked all Jo’s favorite parts and made her a man.”

“What!?”

They did not have time to continue their bazaar argument because they were interrupted by the second strange occurrence; Allison walking in connected by the mouth, along with other parts, to Trevor Grant. Jack had a few thoughts in quick succession at seeing them, mostly good for Allison she deserved something nice, and Allison doesn’t usually act that affectionate in public, as well a small voice in the back of his head that said somethings wrong. That one he said out loud.

“I think something might be wrong.”

“Other than the fact that you are not kissing me right now”

“Nathan!” that had better be a joke and now was not the time for jokes.

“Nothing it wrong and if there is something well until it starts to end the world it’s not your problem today.”

“But –”

“Deputy Andy will handle it.”

* * *

Jack was convinced to let it go and they returned to the bunker where, because again the universe has something against Jack, they found (well heard) the third strange occurrence. From the sound of it Deputy Andy was very occupied, and so was S.A.R.A.H. That took care of Jack plans for a lazy day on the couch and his desire for food for quite some time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who found something of a plot, and who spent far longer than they should have trying to confirm that Tag and Jo were a couple and she did turn down his proposal in the post time jump timeline. (why was that so hard to find?) Also who do you want to see kiss next?


	10. Two soft days and then an almost redaction

The next thing Jack really solidly remembered was waking up with Nathan on a too small bed in the back of Nathans old warehouse lab two days later to the sound of his phone ringing. There were… softer (fuzzier might be a more acceptable word but softer felt more right somehow) memories between the two really solid memories. He remembered Nathan driving too fast (driving the his jeep no less), he remembered his phone ringing and ignoring it to snuggle in to Nathan, he remembered Henry showing up to ask them questions and finding them nude (honestly at this point the whole town had seen Jack naked enough times that it really did not matter [Just keep telling yourself that Jack]) and apparently effected. What Jack mostly remembered was being very happy and free to do exactly as he pleased; it had been a nice two days. 

The phone though would not stop ringing, so Jack groaned and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Jack!” Henry sounded very excited to hear his voice.

“Hi Henry what’s going on?”

“How are you feeling?”

“Mostly confused and a little bit tired why?”

“But mostly normal?”

“Henry? What’s going on?” 

“How would you feel about me seeing you naked?” Zane was now on the other end of the phone call.

“Nope. No. Not gonna happen”

“He’s normal it worked.” Zane announced and hung up.

“What the hell?” Jack try as he might could not figure out what the hell the phone call was about, so he did something that he felt could easily become a habit and woke up Nathan to make him solve it.

* * *

When they arrived at G.D. (Jack had driven the speed limit despite Nathan’s instance that he was going to slow and that it was an emergency [no it wasn’t Henry and Zane had solved the problem]) Henry and Zane explained what had happened. Apparently some section five experiment had interacted with the NLWEPS prototypes that were being tested and then EM field (okay if Jack was being honest he didn’t understand the technical aspect of the explanation but that didn’t really matter because he didn’t have to fix it) and the result had been that everyone in town had apparently been operating without inhibitions for the last two days, it had also apparently effected SARAH and Deputy Andy [Zane was still working on that so best not go home for a while].

Jack was not looking forward to the mountain of paperwork that he was sure would follow this lovely episode in town wide hysteria his brain helpfully supplied memories of the days of paperwork that had followed the purple flower incident. He was proven right when twenty minutes later General Mansfield landed intent on ripping Fargo’s head off, as Fargo had apparently used his break in inhibitions to yell at the General a lot. Jack tried to head him off at the pass and explain the situation but Mansfield did not care, and was in the middle of telling Jack to prepare to redact Fargo when he clapped eyes on Nathan. Thankfully (or not so thankfully) the General had apparently not been made aware of Nathan’s rematerializing because his reaction upon seeing Stark was to turn white as a sheet whisper “fuck” and faint. This reaction caused Nathan to beam.

“I still got it.” Nathan looked like the cat who got the canary.

“Of course you would be pleased that a man just fainted at the sight of you. Would you stop smiling and help me convince him not to redact Fargo? And maybe check he doesn’t have a head injury?”

“I’m not that kind of doctor.”

“Nathan”

* * *

Eventually they did convince General Mansfield not to redact Fargo (mostly Nathan did the convincing as Mansfield seemed to think Jack was worth less than the gum on the bottom of his shoe) and sent him back to D.C. with probably a stellar headache (they never did get around to having an actual medical professional see if he had a head injury). Jack was starting to think things were going to be okay when the elevator doors opened and there was Ben covered in blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a few days because I spent like four trying to write Jack and Nathan fix the issue a la the show and hooo boy it was unread-ably bad. The only thing that was worth keeping was the truly spectacular portmanteau that I am unreasonably proud of bearamones (Bear Pheromones). Any way hopefully coming soon why is Ben covered in blood who's blood is it? I don't know yet.

**Author's Note:**

> This idea just wouldn't leave me alone so, here you go. There will probably be more maybe soon if I can get these idiots to cooperate, let me know if you have any ideas on that front.


End file.
